1. Technical Field
The present device relates generally to a squeezable, collapsible, disposable and/or reusable bottle device with flexible tubing for dispensing liquid nutrition or the like to post-surgical maxillo, craniofacial, and other reconstruction patients.
2. Background Information
Physicians prohibit infants and children who have had surgery for a cleft lip or cleft palate from breast feeding or sucking on a nipple or straw, so it is difficult to feed them. Suction on any feeding device is contraindicated after such reconstructive surgery. Currently, such infants are fed using a piece of tubing inserted over the open end of a syringe. A syringe with tubing is used so as not to disrupt, traumatize, or break open swollen, sutured tissue in the palate and/or lip. Suction, as occurs on a nipple, is contraindicated because it can cause bleeding, hematomas, dislodged sutures, and otherwise impair healing. The tube extending from the syringe must be inserted along the left or right side of the infant's mouth so as not to disturb the sutures and wound site.
There are many problems with syringe feeding. First, a filled syringe is very difficult to manipulate. It takes both hands to fill the syringe and dispense the viscous formula through it. It is difficult to control pressure on the syringe plunger so that the correct amount of fluid is dispensed into the child's mouth. Dispensing too much fluid too fast can cause the child to gag or spit up. Holding the baby and depressing the syringe at the same time is awkward.
Second, syringes generally hold only a limited amount of formula and must be repeatedly refilled during a single feeding. These infants are fussy and often in pain from the surgery and they are disturbed by the repeated halts in their feeding. Refilling the syringe is messy and inconvenient, especially in a hospital room or nursery.
Third, the baby moves around during feeding and the tubing sometimes comes loose from the syringe. Then the loose tube is a hazard in the baby's mouth, and the baby's wet shirt must be changed.
Fourth, feeding becomes more of an uncomfortable medical procedure when it is done with a syringe. Many hospitalized children associate a syringe with painful shots and become belligerent when they see a syringe. Syringe feeding can be intimidating for both the parent and the child. The child must be fed several times per day, and the disadvantages of this type of feeding make feeding time a chore for both the baby and the stressed mother or other caregiver. The baby expends a great deal of energy resisting feeding, and the mother or other caregiver is worn out. Feeding time should instead be a soothing experience for these babies and their mothers.
The same types of problems are encountered in feeding other post-surgical patients who have had maxillo or craniofacial surgery, or who are simply infirm or unable to feed normally due to medical problems of the face or mouth. The problems are further aggravated in that some of these babies and children must undergo repeated reconstruction as they grow. For example, children with a cleft palate often have to return to the hospital for surgery several times between the ages of three weeks and about two years.